Last week, we finally got to the third dimension! Sorry, but this will be as far as we go (unless you count the 4-dimensional homogeneous space that we embed 3D into as 4D, or time as the fourth dimension).
We didn’t quite finish our discussion of 3D transformations – particularly rotations. However, I want to move on a bit to talk about the problem of actually drawing those 3D objects we were transforming onto our 2D screens. This will involve a special kind of transformation (that projects 3D onto 2D), as well as learning a bit about how to make sure things in front block out things in back (we call this visibility in graphics). We’ll need rotations for the viewing transformations, so we’ll talk about them some more.
For this week, the readings will mainly be about viewing, and a little bit about visibility.
The assignment due on Wednesday the 24th involves applying transforms and actually doing a little programming (not just creating SVGs – although your program will create an SVG).
Next Week (its October already, wow, how time flies) we’ll start to take about shapes in 2D and 3D – which is mainly a way to start talking about curves and surfaces.